PHILADELPHIA?The Philadelphia Eagles are finding answers.
The Dallas Cowboys are finding more problems.
That was obvious after the Eagles dominated the Cowboys, 34-7, in a Sunday night game that was as one-sided as the score. It was the Eagles? best game of the season?by far. LeSean McCoy (30 carries, 185 yards, two touchdowns) was magnificent. Michael Vick was coolly efficient?21-of-28, 279 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, 50 yards rushing.
This is how the Eagles (3-4) expected to play when they began the season as one of the NFL?s most talented, most hyped teams. For the first time in seven games, they did not commit a turnover. Instead of beating themselves, they beat down the Cowboys (3-4).
The Eagles are still trying to recover from their 1-4 start. But it?s not too late for them to make noise in the NFC. All that high-priced defensive talent is starting to click. They sacked Tony Romo four times. Cornerbacks Nnamdi Asomugha and Asante Samuel stuck to Dallas? wide receivers like provolone on a Philly cheese steak. Cowboys receivers Dez Bryant (three catches, 28 yards) and Miles Austin (three catches, 27 yards) were bottled up.
Those ready to bury coach Andy Reid and the Eagles can put the shovels away?at least for a now. The Eagles believe the longer they play together, the better they will play together.
?We?re making up for the time that we missed (working) together during the offseason,? said Asomugha, who had an interception off a deflection. ?We felt pretty confident about the matchups, as far as our DBs versus the talent that they had.
?You get criticized when you lose, you get praised when you win. We take it with a grain of the salt. But it was important that we got those (last two) wins because it helped our confidence. You can be confident, but when you?re not winning games, it can bruise you a little bit. We?ve been able to put two back-to-back.?
While the Eagles may be turning a corner, the Cowboys could be headed for trouble. This was their worst game of the season. All three of Dallas? previous losses were by four points or fewer. But against Philadelphia, the Cowboys were thoroughly whipped, trailing 24-0 at halftime and 34-0 before their lone touchdown saved them the humiliation of being shut out.
Dallas? future opponents will fire up the videotape of this game and see if they can duplicate it. Romo (18-for-35, 203 yards, one touchdown, one interception) was under constant duress. And once the Cowboys fell far behind, they had to abandon the running game led by rookie back DeMarco Murray (eight carries, 74 yards).
The Cowboys tried to play this off as just one bad night.
?I do not think there is a big cause for concern, because we just did not play as well as we had hoped,? Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said. ?I would be concerned if I did not think we were going to go out and win a lot of football games. I think we will win games. This is not about re-examining everything that we did.?
However, what Jones says to coach Jason Garrett in private may differ from his public comments. If the Cowboys are not concerned about looking this bad, they are delusional.
The Eagles have been ridiculed for being better on paper than on the field. However, the Cowboys look guilty of that as well.
Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan called the Eagles the ?all-hype team? during training camp. But in the locker room after the game, Ryan took the blame for what he described as a terrible defensive game plan. The Eagles were well prepared for Ryan?s blitzes and gouged the Cowboys with big plays.
?If I gave them any extra motivation, I certainly never backed it up,? Ryan said. ?I gave our guys a lousy plan. We had no chance. It?s all on me. I just had a terrible game plan. I called a terrible game. I got outcoached.??
So the NFC East becomes wackier by the week, with the Eagles, Cowboys, and Redskins, all 3-4, chasing the first-place Giants (5-2), who have a brutal schedule in the second half of the season.
Had the Cowboys won Sunday night, the Eagles would have fallen to 2-5, and who knows if they would have recovered? Instead, the Eagles clearly have hope. And the Cowboys clearly have issues.
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